Pros
- Great flexibility, I work at my own suitable hours from Mon - Sun and I am able to spend a significant portion of my time in development. I previously worked at a startup which was pretty flexible but the % of time I spend on development is still higher at Crossover - Incredible learning opportunities. I think this might be specific to the team room you get assigned to. But only to a certain extent. The company has an automation first approach to everything and advocate several principles towards inculcating this mindset (the Time Motion Study being my favorite). So, regardless of your task, there are always opportunities to explore new technology. In my team room, there are several architects and we use a lot of cutting edge stuff, which gives me a lot to learn and I've gained several skills that would prove useful in my career in just a short period of time - Good pay, especially if you live in a developing country. Pay has always been on time so far and you get exactly what you are entitled to, as long as you work your 40 hours - Very process-oriented. This can be a good thing and a bad thing at times. Good, because most processes have a specific intention and following them tends to achieve a certain goal which eventually makes everyones life easier. Bad because, processes can get in the way of achieving results quickly someimtes especially when there is a mismatch. Sometimes a process could have been developed in a different context and does not apply for your context. However, I would still put this as a PRO because processes are ever-evolving and they take feedback very seriously and decisions are data driven.
Cons
- The lack of being connected with people can get very real, very quickly. The relationships you build with your team can be very objective-driven if you let it be so. You can get lonely because of this. In my case, I am able to share some interests with the people I work with and have conversations along those lines, but it's very limited. - No benefits of any kind. Given the pay, this is not a serious issue. But I feel that there should be some kind of development stipend (doesn't have to be a lot) to incentivize the purchase of self-development tools/services. - No physical meetups advocated by the company. There should be some meetups sponsored by the company which would address both the above issues as well. I have a very multi-cultural team which is pretty amazing except for the fact that limited non-work communication prevents me from learning about the other person's culture. - No push towards building open-source tools. You should try and have hackathons or some initiative to promote the development of POCs that benefit the community. You can even convert some of these to actual products if there is a market fit. - There is a lack of a clear career trajectory for someone who wants to spend their future at this company. Add to this the job insecurity, which makes you feel restless about your situation. This is mostly due to paranoia brought about by others being kicked out of the company. Perhaps there was a long process (as it happens in several companies) that entailed a person being removed, but the lack of transparency on this issue makes it feel like the job situation is very unstable. There needs to be a playbook of sorts that gives you an idea of what kind of performance puts you in danger vs the kind of performance that earns you a promotion.
